Team Canada head coach Steve Spott answers questions during a news conference. REUTERS/Todd Korol When Steve and Lisa Spott moved to their new home in Michigan, Steve’s father, Martin, gave them some seeds to plant. The seeds were for one of the elder Spott’s prized plants, a beautiful Rose of Sharon bush.

Spott was working as an assistant coach to Peter DeBoer, with the Ontario Hockey League’s Plymouth Whalers. A good friend of DeBoer, Spott offered some of the seeds to the head coach’s wife, Sue.

Sue DeBoer waited. Nothing happened.

“We had heat lamps going on it, we bought special plant food,” said Peter DeBoer, now the head coach of the New Jersey Devils. “We were continuously watering, but we couldn’t figure out why we were getting nothing.”

They were getting nothing because Spott was pulling one of his many hilarious, nefarious pranks. The pots were seedless.

“For six or seven weeks, Sue was watering soil,” said Spott with

CALGARY — Jake Paterson is getting comfortable with being the dark horse. He’s the goaltender that came into Team Canada’s camp and put his name out there as one of the country’s brightest junior hockey stars.

Unfortunately for Paterson, his name has also been the cause of much confusion. In the OHL, Paterson  plays for the Saginaw Spirit. There’s a goalie for the Spirit’s Western Conference rival, the London Knights. His name is Jake Patterson.

Even with the slight variation in spelling, there’s still a lot of mistaken identity.

During the 2011 NHL entry draft, when Paterson was selected by the Detroit Red Wings in the third round (80th overall), the U.S. network broadcasting the event showed highlights of the other Jake.

“It’s pretty funny,” said Paterson of the two Jakes conundrum. “What are the odds there are two goalies the same age and have the same name of Jake Pat(t)erson? There have been a couple articles where we have been mixed up.”

Here, competing at Hockey Canada’s

Team Canada's Ryan Murphy (R) is hauled down by CIS' Eric Galbraith during selection camp.CALGARY — Before knocking on Ryan Murphy’s door – to tell him he had made the team – Team Canada head coach Steve Spott thought about pulling, what would have been by far, a world class prank.

Murphy, who plays for Spott with the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers, had been cut from Team Canada on two previous occasions.

“It did go through my head to bring him downstairs in front of the (selection committee making the cuts),” said Spott. “But I said, if he’d had a cardiac arrest going down the stairs, I’d have felt awful about that.”

The joke might sound unbelievably cruel if you don’t understand the close bond Spott and his star defenceman have forged. When Spott was promoted to become the head coach and general manager of the Rangers, Murphy was the first player he drafted.

When Murphy had been cut twice before by Team Canada, it was Spott who helped soothe the disappointment and worked to rebuild the defenceman’s confidence.

And there’s also the fact that Murphy, with his wicked sense of

Derrick Pouliot (L) checks Ryan Nugent-Hopkins during the 2nd period of the red-white team game.CALGARY — One by one, the five players dismissed from Team Canada’s World Junior Hockey Championship camp made their way up the stairs from their hotel’s basement meeting room to face the media.

Their suitcases, carried up by Hockey Canada media director Andre Brin, proceeded their arrival.

Let go in the first round of cuts were forwards Tyler Graovac, Sean Monahan, Francis Beauvillier and defencemen Adam Pelech and Derrick Pouliot.

The players answered a few questions in front
of the amassed media -- television cameras, photographers, print and radio reporters -- before
being shuttled out the hotel’s backdoor and into a
waiting  van that would take them to the airport.

It was quick, but far from painless.

“I’ve never been so nervous in my life,” said Pouliot, who will head back to the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks. “You’re just sitting there waiting hoping you don’t get that phone call. It’s pretty tough.”

There was something sordid about clamoring to hear players talk about their

CALGARY Nathan MacKinnon of the Halifax Mooseheads — Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin are almost inseparable. They do practically everything together in Halifax, where they are linemates with the Quebec Junior Hockey League’s Mooseheads.

This week, they are getting the opportunity to experience their first world junior selection camp together.

“We’re friends and we wish the best for each other,” said MacKinnon. “It’s not a competitive relationship. We play together, we go to school together, we eat together. We’re buddies.

”Hopefully we can both do good things.’’

So far, so good.

Playing in the first intrasquad scrimmage of the tryout camp on Tuesday night, MacKinnon and Drouin showed the same kind of off-the-charts chemistry that has helped propel the Mooseheads to the top of the QMJHL standings. They were dynamic every time they were out on the ice, playing with players older and bigger, but never once did the pair of 17 year olds look overmatched or out of place.

“I think they were both nervous early,” said

The Calgary International Airport was turned into makeshift press centre on Monday as Canada’s top junior players arrived at camp.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is in Calgary at Team Canada's WJC camp. (Reuters)Amid the baggage carousels, weary travelers had to sidestep the likes of Edmonton Oilers star Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who would have been playing in the NHL if not for the lockout.

The 19-year-old, on loan from Edmonton’s AHL affiliate in Oklahoma City, said he was happy to be finally getting a taste of the world junior experience. He attended Team Canada’s camp once before as a 17-year-old, but was cut from the team. He spent last season in the NHL, where he scored 52 points in 62 games, after being chosen first overall in the 2011 draft.

There was a distinct difference from the reserved kid dismissed by Hockey Canada in 2011 and the confident young man standing at the centre of the media crush at the airport.

“I feel like I’m a different person than I was a couple years ago,” said Nugent-Hopkins. “My game has definitely evolved a lot and I see

Head coach-GM Mike Johnston and his Portland Winterhawks

There have been duelling press releases concerning Portland’s sanctions for violating rules regarding player benefits. For the usually staid WHL a member team publicly defying the league is unprecedented. It’s become an embarrassment.

The Winterhawks, apparently breaking a confidentiality agreement, disclosed the details of the rules the WHL punished them – mightily – for breaking.

The question is posed to the commissioner: The league can’t look too kindly on a member team spilling beans, can it?

There is an uncomfortable pause on the other end of the phone.

“No,” said Robison, curtly.

On Friday, the WHL commissioner was making the rounds – including both major Toronto sports radio stations – doing interviews to discuss the situation with Portland. He’s come under a

Kamloops Blazers forward Jordan DePapeIt’s always tough when bad things happen to good people. When that person is Jordan DePape, fate seems particularly cruel.

On Saturday night, after a shootout victory over the Prince George Cougars, the 20-year-old walked into the Kamloops Blazers dressing room and told his teammates his Western Hockey League career was over. His damaged right shoulder needs surgery and rehab.

“It was tough,” said DePape on Monday. “We had two really big games this weekend and I didn’t want to let them know before, because it would be a distraction to the team. I didn’t think that was fair.”

Instead, DePape - one of the most well-liked players on the team - kept his heartbreaking news a secret until after the game. He had tried to hold his emotions in check as best as possible, but when head coach Guy Charron began to speak, the reality hit home.

“It instantly brought tears to my eyes,” said DePape, who spent four seasons with the Blazers. “My teammates knew that was it for me this season. I had to